Eric says here, he chose the name Derek and the Dominos to test if the music could survive on its own.
I really wanted to put it to a very severe test. I made an album called ‘Layla and Assorted Love Songs’ and I thought if it sells well without any name attached to it, then it’s good music.
To me, Eric Clapton is one of those few artists who looks almost unrecognisable in their younger days. Just like in the photo above, I have to look twice to pick him out. Oh yeah – that’s him, I think on the far right. Eric’s voice sounds wonderfully soulful on today’s featured track, I Looked Away. The band makes everything sound seamless and easy on this bluesy number, and it feels like a rather underrated song in Eric’s vast catalogue.
I really like that gritty, curling guitar sound right at the start, then the other guitar comes in and overlaps it. The voices also weave together in a similar way. Then there’s that short, sharp wailing guitar solo, which is sublime. There’s real pain in Clapton’s playing – so good. It’s a tight and clever piece that seems simple on the surface and flows effortlessly, but actually there’s quite a lot going on musically.
I Looked Away seems a deceptively simple song about a woman who walked away on her man, but there may be more going on here. On the surface, the singer laments the moment he “looked away,” after which his girl leaves him and he is left miserable. In the second verse, however, it becomes clear that she was actually another man’s woman. If loving her is a sin, he says, then he will keep on sinning.
But in SongMeanings below, someone makes a very strong argument that the song might actually be about two different men who love the same woman but are on opposite sides of the situation. One voice – often assumed to be Clapton – sings the chorus and the first verse about a woman leaving him because he “looked away.” The second verse, sung by Bobby Whitlock, may represent the other man, who admits he is loving “another man’s woman.”
At the time, Clapton was deeply in love with Patty Boyd, who was still married to his close friend George Harrison. His feelings for her became one of the emotional forces behind the music he was writing around this period. Harrison and Boyd eventually divorced in 1977, and Boyd later married Clapton on 27 March 1979. Their marriage, however, was troubled and ended in divorce in 1989.
Derek and the Dominos released only one studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970), and I Looked Away appears early in that record. The album also features notable slide-guitar contributions from Duane Allman, whose playing became a defining part of the album’s sound and legacy.
[Pre-Chorus]
She took my hand
And tried to make me understand
That she would always be there
[Chorus]
But I looked away
And she ran away from me today
I’m such a lonely man
[Verse 1]
It came as no surprise to me
That she’d leave me in misery
It seemed like only yesterday
She made a vow that she would never walk away
[Pre-Chorus]
She took my hand
And tried to make me understand
That she would always be there
[Chorus]
But I looked away
And she ran away from me today
I’m such a lonely man
[Verse 2]
And if it seemed a sin
To love another man’s woman, baby
I guess I’ll keep on sinning
Loving her, Lord, till my very last day
[Chorus]
But I looked away
And she ran away from me today
I’m such a lonely man
References:
1. I Looked Away – SongMeanings
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
One of my all-time favorite albums. I listened to it everyday when I was pregnant with my son. When he was born, if he was fussy, I’d put it on & he’d quiet right down.